Diane Von Frustenberg Vogue 1548

I couldn't believe my eyes when I last visited my Mum and found this in her pattern stash, how had I not found this before, and she can't tell me when she acquired it.

This pattern comes in one size only and this is a size 8, with measurements of:
Bust:  80
Waist: 61
Hip: 85

and the only finished length was the finished back length from the base of the neck to the hem.

Seeing my measurements are larger than those above for the bust and waist, I wasn't quite sure how to tackle this.

I first went to Pattern Review to see if there were any reviews and there are two but only 1 with working photos from Twinset back in 2007 which unfortunately if you are not a member of Pattern Review you can't see that far back.  What I did notice with the photo was how wide and low the neckline was.

So I dug out Butterick 3344 which I have made previously and compared the bodice pattern pieces.

I also did a FBA of 1cm and realised quite a bit later that I had put the horizontal line in the wrong place together with my adjustment to the make the neckline less revealing made the tie square very large.  This meant I had to do some creative adjustments when sewing the facing on.

The other changes I made to the pattern were to:

• add 1cm to the back waist seam as I did to the front with the FBA
• straightened the side seams at the waist on the bodice by 2cm.
• cut off 17cm at the short dress length as it was extremely long on me and this also let the front pattern piece fit across the width of the folded 150cm fabric.
• I didn't add the pockets
• I only made the tie opening on the left hand side as I don't intend to try and wear this dress back-to-front

Now this fabric has been maturing in the stash since 2012 and I have already used some to make a version of Kwik.Sew 3740.

I used a knit interfacing for the facings.

I also didn't finish the raw edge of the facing, as the bulk of that seam would have annoyed me.

The instructions are very detailed and easy to use and it is made completely on my sewing machine as it has travelled with me to various sewing groups.

The ties for the dress are very long, so I was very thankful to have my Fasturn tubes with me which made turning the ties out so much easier.

I really like how you use twill tape to stabilise the waist when attaching the bodice.

The back neck facing kept rolling out even with clipping and under stitching and it wasn't until I read Vi''s blog Finished Seams where she showed quite a few details of a real DFV dress reminded me that that I could also used my label to keep the facing in place. 

I did use my Coverstitch for the hems.

Dress hem with facing slip stitched in place.

Sleeve hem.

and this is how the dress looks on.

and the twirl factor

For future versions, I need to do the following adjustments:

1. Neckline gaposis
2. Round shoulder adjustment
3. The 1cm I added to the waist seam needs to be removed

It is a very comfortable dress to wear and the cross-over is very generous, so no exposure was apparent during the twirling session.


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2015 Stash Out: 10.55 m
2015 Stash In: 16.5 m